Friday, May 09, 2014

With the news that the Leafs have extended coach Randy Carlyle, I found myself asking what the Toronto Maple Leafs franchise stands for?They’re no longer about their storied history. Tim Leiweke rejected the club’s past within minutes of arriving in Toronto.They're not about innovation. Has any sports team in any league so loudly and proudly proclaimed their ignorance about and rejection of what new statistical insights might yield?They're not about process. This is a team that has only won games when they’ve had unsustainable goaltending and/or unsustainable shooting.Surely, if they're not about process they must be all-in on outcomes -- except the Leafs had just four regulation wins between November and January and just three wins in their last 15 games.Their rejection of outcomes is strong evidence that they're not about accountability. Nonis and Carlyle were handed rewards that are completely incommensurate with their mediocre results.Perhaps it’s irony or hypocrisy that best defines the Toronto Maple Leafs organization.I can think of no greater irony than the men who run the team believing the building blocks for a successful hockey team are identity, leadership and accountability --- the very characteristics that these men and this organization are completely devoid of.Cheering for laundry is defensible, cheering for an organization that willfully rejects history, innovation, process, outcomes and accountability is not. I won't do it.With the news that the Leafs have extended coach Randy Carlyle it’s become all too clear what the Toronto Maple Leafs stand for and it’s something I just can’t stand.